The case involves Detroiters Anthony Moore, 33, and his girlfriend, Arianna Landfair, 24, who was released on bond Friday. He was released Wednesday. Both face fraud charges, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Defense lawyers were not available for comment.

According to court documents, the scheme worked like this:

Moore would pick up his girlfriend just before midnight. The two then hopscotched across metro Detroit, hitting Meijer after Meijer for high-end items.

Unbeknownst to the couple, a store investigator was watching.

An investigator with Meijer Corp. was in a Meijer parking lot at 8 a.m. in Southgate on March 20 when he saw two people pushing a shopping cart. In the cart was a Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner, one of the most stolen items from Meijer. The couple had another one of the vacuums in their trunk, and a third one in the back seat.

The investigator decided to tail them.

The couple went back inside the store and headed to the electronics department, where Moore tried to buy an iPad with multiple gift cards, but the cards were rejected. He then scanned several cards to determine the value on each one, and eventually bought the iPad successfully.

The pursuit continued.

The next stop was a Meijer in Lincoln Park. While en route, the investigator did some quick checking and learned that the gift cards Moore had just used were bought the day before at a Meijer in Canton. The cards were part of a $14,000 gift card purchase, paid for with the stolen credit card.

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Police were called while the couple was at the Lincoln Park Meijer. They arrived and arrested the pair, but not before Moore pulled off another scam: He bought some high-priced razors.

Police searched Moore and found 22 more gift cards on him, several of which were tucked in the ashtray of his car.

At the police station, the couple was interviewed by federal agents with the Secret Service.

Landfair confessed that Moore had picked her up just before midnight the night before, and the two went on an all-night shopping spree, stopping at eight Meijers. She ended up buying about 10 iPads using $500 gift cards. She told the agents that Moore told her that he was selling the items to employees at a Southfield gas station.

Landfair said she was involved in the scheme for about three to four months; Moore had been doing it for about a year.

Moore was interviewed next.

He took responsibility for the scam and "immediately stated that he was wrong and 'made bad judgment' ... and that his girlfriend had nothing to do with what was going on and that she should be released."

When asked where he got the gift cards, Moore initially said that he met someone on Craigslist, but couldn't provide information on the person.

When asked for that person's phone number, Moore said he threw his phone away and didn't know how to contact the person.

When asked about selling the items at the gas station, Moore stopped talking.